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At St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School, we set the highest academic standards through a demanding college preparatory curriculum. The academic program gives our students a firm grasp of fundamental skills and develops their ability to think and write creatively, critically, and independently. Our curriculum fosters an appreciation for the diversity and interconnectedness of human experience; we challenge our students to ask more questions, give consideration to other points of view, and never settle for the easy answer.

At SSSAS, everyone has the opportunity to be an artist. Our program aims to benefit the wide-ranging interests of the students; they can be a singer, a dancer, a photographer, an illustrator, a painter. The opportunities are limitless, just like our students' creativity.

The SSSAS Athletics program is among the best and most competitive in the region. Our students balance academics and athletic excellence and practice good sportsmanship. Our Saints are resilient, fair, and talented competitors on and off the field.

As an Episcopal school, we are called to love and honor one another despite our differences. We are called to service, to be stewards of God's creation, and to practice empathy and understanding toward one another, always pursuing goodness, as well as knowledge.

St. Stephen's and St. Agnes is a JK-12 Episcopal day school located six miles south of Washington, D.C., in Alexandria, Virginia. Our school consists of three distinct campuses within a 1.5 mile radius, each uniquely tailored to meet the needs of the students within.

Annual gifts to The Saints Fund support the good work of our talented faculty, provide cutting-edge technology and classroom spaces, and ensure our Saints have the best possible academic, artistic, and athletic experience.

Amy Argetsinger '86

This school gave me the intellectual stimulation and camaraderie that made me excited about learning and eager to succeed. I remain grateful to the teachers I had, and grateful for the support the school gives their faculty.

Washington Post Editor

Saints alumna Amy Artgetsinger '86 is an editor for The Washington Post Style section and a former Reliable Source columnist. She knows how much social media has changed the game for news reporting. There is an expectation for news to be reported instantaneously and for media to provide constant updates on a story. It’s changed the way journalists gather information, how they engage with their audiences, and it has created a brave new world for content. It’s a world where words can carry a lot of weight and live on indefinitely. Amy gives us the good, the bad, and the in-between of this medium from her personal experience and reflection.

Q: How does the role of social media—especially Twitter—impact today's journalism?

Amy:“I have such mixed feelings about Twitter. On the one hand, it’s been an amazing tool for helping us find new sources of information. You probably remember the Twitter user in 2009 who shared the first photo of the US Airways plane floating in the Hudson; but I always think of an incident later that year. One afternoon, I overheard an older reporter on the phone talking to National Zoo officials about a stunning tragedy—a deer that was mauled after it accidentally leapt into the lion’s den.

‘Wow,’ I said. ‘There must have been a ton of people who saw it happen on a beautiful day like today?’

‘Yes, one assumes,’ he said, ‘but who knows, because they haven’t called us.’

Suddenly, I knew what had happened. I went to Twitter and searched, ‘lion deer zoo.’ Within seconds I found two people who had seen it—one of whom had posted video—and within minutes my colleague had them on the phone.

‘This is great!’ he said. ‘No, it’s terrible,’ I replied. ‘Because the people who want to share information aren’t calling us anymore. They’re taking it straight to Twitter.’

It is also a potent feedback machine. I have seen mistakes corrected, questions answered, and stories sharpened thanks to immediate input from thoughtful readers. But that chorus can be an echo chamber. A few loud voices feel like the entire world shouting at you. And so I have seen journalists publish stories that are nearly indecipherable because they are written in response to insider arguments mustered by a couple dozen people they follow on Twitter. Worse, I have seen journalists talk themselves out of writing stories altogether, someone else made a 140-character observation on that topic that convinced them it’s already been ‘done.’

And I haven't even begun to discuss the endless hours journalists spend on Twitter promoting their stories, picking fights, obsessing over their follower count—time when they could have spent with their families, or reading a book, or writing real stories.

On the whole? Twitter helps us as much as hurts us; it wastes as much time as it saves; and it narrows our worldview as much as it broadens it.”